Ten researchers from the best research centres worldwide have received funding under the TOP200 NAWA pilot programme. NCN will fund research components of nine winning applicants worth over PLN 3 million.
The TOP200 programme is a new initiative of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) aimed to attract outstanding research talent to Poland from universities ranked among the world’s top 200 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings or Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is part of the European Commission’s Choose Europe for Science initiative, which promotes researcher mobility and the attraction of outstanding research talent.
Successful applicants include seven accomplished researchers who applied under the Senior Fellow track, and three researchers under the Junior Fellow track. They mainly represent Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences (history, historiography, philosophy and linguistics) but also Physical Sciences and Engineering (astronomy, chemistry, material engineering), and Life Sciences (topics of recommended projects include cancer, childhood obesity and human brain function). The total value of projects recommended for funding is nearly PLN 19 million. The National Science Centre will fund nine research components with a value of PLN 3,171,149, while the tenth component will be financed by the National Centre for Research and Development.
Beneficiaries will travel to six academic institutions, that are among NCN’s largest grantees, namely the Jagiellonian University (3 recommended projects), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (3 projects), Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (1 project), Institute of Physical Chemistry, PAS (1 project), Gdańsk University of Technology (1 project), and Warsaw University of Technology (1 project). Involvement of researchers from the Harvard University, University of Oxford or Michigan State University will create new development opportunities for the Polish researchers.
Under the Senior Fellow track, principal investigators must have been foreign researchers with at least a PhD who had conducted research abroad for at least 36 months over the past 4 years in a research centre outside of Poland, ranked among the world’s top 200, as stated above. The Junior Fellow track was available to foreign early-career researchers who had worked at such research centres for at least 12 months over the past two years and had been conferred their PhD no earlier than 7 years before the proposal submission date.
NCN has cooperated with NAWA for many years, funding research components under the NAWA Polish Returns. For the first time, NAWA will fund foreign fellowships of early-career researchers under NCN’s SONATINA programme. In order to encourage foreign researchers to pursue their research at Polish research institutions, cooperation was extended by introduction of TOP200 to support the transfer of knowledge, development of international cooperation networks, and to increase the presence and recognition of Polish researchers abroad. TOP200 is a pilot programme and its potential continuation will be subject to a decision by the Minister of Science and Higher Education.